Riverside–Rialto was an

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 ...

train service operated by the

Pacific Electric Railway The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...

from 1914 to 1940, running from Downtown Los Angeles to

Downtown Riverside Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire and i ...

. This was the longest service in the Pacific Electric system, and the only line to have exclusive trackage owned by the

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

instead of the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was ...

. The line reached its highest ridership the year it opened but never recovered at a time when the

Inland Empire The Inland Empire (IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County to the west. It includes the cities ...

was far less populated and a commute of that distance was rare.

History

The line was initially constructed in 1907 by the Riverside Portland Cement Company to link their new plant to the

national rail network In United States railroading, the term national rail network, sometimes termed "U.S. rail network", refers to the entire network of interconnected standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gaug ...

at Riverside. Operating as The Crescent City Railway Company, service was contracted out to The Riverside & Arlington Railway Company who began regular operations on May 18, 1908. The line primarily served plant workers. Riverside & Arlington would go on to be absorbed into

Pacific Electric The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...

as a result of the Great Merger. The line was opened to Bloomington on March 11, 1911, and finally to Rialto on March 25, 1914. Initially only local service was provided, and passengers from Los Angeles continuing to Riverside were encouraged to take the longer trip and change at San Bernardino. On March 15, 1915, most local service was replaced with through trips to the

Pacific Electric Building The historic Pacific Electric Building (also known as the Huntington Building, after the railway’s founder, Henry Huntington, or simply “6th & Main”), opened in 1905 in the core of Los Angeles as the main train station for the Pacific Elec ...

in Downtown Los Angeles. Cars were connected to

San Bernardino Line The San Bernardino Line is a Metrolink line running between Downtown Los Angeles east through the San Gabriel Valley and the Inland Empire to San Bernardino, with express service to Redlands. It is one of the three initial lines (along with ...

trains. Between May 1921 and 1929, local cars made trips as far north as Foothill Boulevard in Rialto — the only scheduled trips to that point. All trips became through-routed to Los Angeles on November 2, 1931 as service to the cement plant was discontinued. This was short lived, as by 1935 all but one trip had been reverted to local with through routing ending entirely in 1938. Service was reduced to a single trip between Riverside and Rialto by June 9, 1940 and discontinued outright on November 18.

List of major stations

Lordsburg Pacific Electric station (00013185)

References

Pacific Electric routes History of Los Angeles County, California History of Riverside County, California History of Riverside, California Claremont, California Covina, California Crestmore Heights, California El Monte, California Fontana, California Pomona, California Pomona Valley Rialto, California San Dimas, California Upland, California Railway services introduced in 1908 Railway services discontinued in 1940 1908 establishments in California 1940 disestablishments in California 1920s in California 1930s in California Closed railway lines in the United States {{California-transport-stub